Mobile Platforms are hitting critical mass across smartphones and tablets. Globally in Q4 2010, smartphone and tablet shipments exceeded desktop and PC shipments. In 2011, it is estimated that approximately 480 million smartphones and tablets were shipped as opposed to approximately 380 million desktop and PCs.
As the mobility trend heats up, we see the mobile Tech Giants battle it out to try and gain more market share in the industry.
Research in Motion (RIM)
The rollout of BB10 comes too little, too late in the day for RIM and the delay of devices will hurt it further. The company has been battered by hyper competition from Google, Apple and Microsoft, as well as some questionable competitive decisions it has made over the last few years. At this rate, RIM may not survive intact as a company for very long. Some hard decisions have to be taken very soon. The dismal quarterly performance from RIM is only expected to worsen.
RIM needs 3 basic things to turn the company around:
- Completely revamped mobile devices - both hardware and OS that can trump the competition;
- Developer and partner support (which has been waning as of late) to develop new and exciting applications for BB10; and
- Customer confidence and interest - which has also waned considerably after RIM consistently failed to keep up with superior products from the competition.
These are big things to ask for and are very difficult to accomplish at present; the odds are stacked against the company, going by past history of how big tech companies can sink quickly.
